Garment support



Aug. 29, 1961 N. M. STEFANO GARMENT SUPPORT Filed Oct. 1. 1959 INVENTOR Wk. SW

United States Patent 2,998,172 GARMENT SUPPORT Nicholas M. Stefano, Hagerstown, Md. (4605 Sugar Hill Drive, Rolling Hills Estates, Calif.) Filed Oct. 1, 1959, Ser. No. 843,750 8 Claims. (Cl. 223-88) This invention relates to devices employed to hang garments and more particularly to a device for connecting two garment supports of the conventional coat hanger form for use in supporting garments such as mens trousers.

When the ordinary coat hanger, commonly formed from a single piece of round wire, is used to support a pair of mens trousers or slacks, the garment will frequently fall from the hanger if more of the garment hangs on one side of the hanger cross bar than the other, or if the belt and buckle and heavy objects in the pockets are not first removed, because of the small amount of friction that is developed between the hanger and the garment. In the present invention, two garment hangers are positionedtogether to jointly support a triple folded garment by having the garment pass over the cross bar or horizontal support member of the first hanger in one fold or loop, under the cross bar of the second hanger in a second fold, and then up and over the first fold of the garment that is looped over the first hanger cross bar, thus forming a third fold. Therefore, not only is more friction developed by the cloth of the garment being in contact with both hanger cross bars, but, in addition, friction is developed between the first fold of the cloth of the garment over the first hanger and the last or third fold of the garment lying over the first fold. It will be noted, further, that the two folds of the garment in contact with one another are pulling in opposite directions against each other.

1 Heretofore, special supporting devices have been provided for supporting mens trousers and slacks and ladies skirts by clamping one edge of the garment, usually at two separate points, by, for example, clothes-pin type clamps, whereby the garment hangs downwardly in a single drape to thereby avoid wrinkles in the garment. All such devices that have come to my attention suffer from at least one drawback, particularly for a person who must travel extensively, in that they are somewhat too large and bulky to be easily packed in ordinary luggage. Also, the clamps used frequently catch on other clothing and become entangled, sometimes tearing flimsy or fragile clothing that must be packed in the same luggage or hung, for example, in the same clothes closet. Since wire coat hangers are so inexpensive that practically all hotels, motels, etc. store such hangers in their closets, there is no necessity for packing such hangers in luggage. Only a small separator need be carried in ones luggage.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide means for placing two garment supports of the ordinary wire coat hanger type in such positional relation that a garment jointly supported by the two garment supports will not fall therefrom despite a substantial weight in one part of'the garment, or a greater part of the garment hanging on one side of the hangers than on the other side.

A further objects is to provide means whereby the greater part of a garment is placed in tension, due to the weight of the garment, and contents of any pockets, belts, etc., thereby tending to remove wrinkles from the garment.

An additional object is to provide a means for positioning two garment hangers in overlaying, staggered relation to support a garment which is in engagement with and jointly supported by both hangers in a triple folded arrangement.

"ice

It is a still further object to provide a device for positioning two garment hangers together in accordance with the present invention which is compact, relatively small and light enough to be easily packed and carried in regular luggage when traveling.

I achieve these and other objects in a manner as set forth in the following specification and illustrated in the appended drawing in which:

FIGURE 1 is an overall view of the invention illustrating a pair of trousers supported thereby.

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged section view taken along line 2-2 in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a section view taken along line 33 in FIGURE 1.

Referring to FIGURE 1, a garment hanger 10, which may be of the ordinary coat hanger type constructed of a single piece of round wire, has a support hook member .11, two outwardly and downwardly extending shoulder members 12, 12' and a horizontal garment supporting cross bar member 13. A second garment hanger 14, similar to the first hanger 10, has a support hook 15, two outwardly and downwardly extending shoulder members 16, .16, and a horizontal garment supporting cross bar member 17. The two garment hangers are positioned relative to each other in an overlaying, staggered relationship by a connecting, or separating, means indicated at 19 whereby one hanger is downwardly spaced with respect to the other hanger, preferably by about one inch.

The separating means 19 is preferably in the form of a one-piece, substantially flat plate member, which may be of metal, having two outwardly and downwardly extending upper edges 21, 21 and a pair of outwardly and downwardly extending lower edges 23, 23. The inverted V angles formed by the two upper edges and the two lower edges are substantially equal to the inverted V angles formed by the outwardly and downwardly extend ing shoulder members of the two garment hangers 10 and 14. The plate 19 has two parallel cuts along each of the two upper edges 21, 21, and substantially perpendicular thereto, whereby the portion between each of the two cuts is deformed into hook-like tang members 20, 20'. Similar hook-like tang members 22, 22' are provided in the plate 19 along the two lower edges 23, 23'. Each of the hook members is spaced apart from the plate member a distance, preferably, approximately equal to the wire diameter of the average standard coat hanger, which is about of an inch. It is to be understood, however, that such measurement is by no means critical since the hooks need not grip the wire of the hanger, but may be quite loose for a reason which will now become apparent.

Referring to FIGURE 3, the trousers 18 are laid on a flat surface and the ends 27 of the legs of the trousers :18 are folded over the horizontal hanger member 13 of the first hanger 10, which is also lying on the flat surface Next, the second hanger 14 is positioned with respect to the first hanger by means of the separator member 19 and laid on the trousers, bringing cross bar member 17 into a relative position with respect to cross bar member 13, as shown in FIGURE 3. The ends 27 of the trouser legs are then folded up and over the horizontal member 17 of the second hanger, then down and beneath the first fold of the trousers and the member 13 of the first hanger. The entire assembly may now be lifted by lifting hook 11, and the trousers will hang freely downward. It will now be seen that the weight of the downwardly hanging parts of the trousers produces tension in the trouser legs which produces a force on each of the members 13 and 117 to urge them toward each other and thereby hanger 14 is urged upward, and hanger 10 is urged downward. Therefore, it can be seen that the separator 19 acts principally as a separator or positioner to position the two hangers in spaced apart, staggered relationship and it is not necessary that the hook members grip the hangers but need only be capable of freely receiving the wire of the hanger; Of course, it will be foundsomewhat more desirable if the hook members are formed by bending inwardly toward the plate, or pinching, in such fashion that they will have at least a slight frictional engagement with the hanger wire since it will be easier, when folding the trousers over the support members, if the separator does not disengage from the two hangers while the trousers are being positioned. Also, by having the separator grip the hangers, it will remain attached to the hangers, and neither the separator, nor hanger 14, will fall when removing the garment from the hangers.

Examination of FIGURES 2 and 3 will reveal the necessity of the separator 19 performing still another function in addition to that of positioning the hangers and maintaining them in their spaced and staggered relation. The upward load on the second or lowermost hanger horizontal cross bar 17 places an upward load on the two shoulder members 16, 16 and thence on the two hook members 22, 22' of the separator 19. The downward load on the horizontal support bar 13 places a downward load in the two shoulder members 12 =12 of the first or uppermost hanger 10 and thence on the two hook members 20, 20" of the separator 19. Since the hook-like members 20, 20' are separated laterally from the hook members 22, 22', a consequence of the difiiculty of positioning both hangers in the same vertical plane without deforming part of the hanger out of its customary shape, the loads transmitted to the separator will produce a couple tending to tumble the separator in a counterclockwise sense, in FIGURE 2. Consequently, the means to prevent such tumbling as a result of the vertical loads imposed on the separator is accomplished by providing material on the separator, such as at the top of edges 21 and 21', that will contact any part of the uppermost hanger 10' above the points of engagement, at 20 and 20", of the two shoulder members and the hooks. Even though it is possible to position both hangers on the same side of the separator by providing all the hook members on the same side and then bending one of the hangers slightly out of shape to engage the hooks, I have found it to be far more satisfactory to position the two hangers, one on each side of the separator, as illustrated in the drawing.

Although the invention has been illustrated in its preferred form, it is to be understood that variations may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. For example, although the separating means has been illustrated as being a fiat plate of metal, such as aluminum, the separator may be formed of one piece of stifl fiber or a suitable plastic material. Also, the separator may be a plate of any suitable material with engaging means in the form of separate hook or tang memebrs riveted, bonded by adhesive or otherwise suitably attached to the plate. It is further contemplated that instead of the separator being in the form of a plate, the separator may be constructed of stiff wire which would be formed into a shape that generally follows the outline shape of the plate type separator illustrated in the drawings.

I claim:

1. A separator for positioning and maintaining a pair of garment hangers having outwardly and downwardly extending shoulder members and being in overlying staggered relation when jointly under the load of a triple folded garment consisting of a substantially fiat plate, the said plate having an upper edge and a lower edge, upper hanger engaging means on said plate for detachably engaging the said shoulder members of the first garment hanger and lower hanger engaging means on said plate positioned below said upper hanger engaging means for detachably engaging the said shoulder members of the second garment hanger thereby to position the second hanger in overlying staggered relation to the first hanger.

2. The device as defined in claim 1 wherein the said hanger engaging means are hook members on said flat plate.

3. The device as defined in claim 2 wherein the said hook members are formed integral with said flat plate.

4. The device as defined in claim 3 wherein the said hook members are formed so as to frictionally engage the said hangers to prevent disengagement of the hangers therefrom without application of a manual force.

5. A separator for positioning and maintaining a pair of garment hangers having outwardly and downwardly extending shoulder members and being in overlying staggered relation when jointly under the load of a triple folded garment consisting of a substantially fiat plate, the said plate having an upper edge and a lower edge, upper hanger engaging means on said plate near said upper edge for detachable engagement with the shoulder members of the first garment hanger, the said upper engaging means having a portion extending under said shoulder members and forming a barrier to downward movement of said hanger, and lower hanger engaging means on said plate positioned below said upper engaging means for detachable engagement with the shoulder members of said second garment hanger thereby to position the second hanger in overlying downwardly staggered relation to the first hanger, the said lower engaging means having a portion extending over said shoulder members and forming a barrier to upward movement of said second hanger toward said first hanger.

6. A separator for positioning and maintaining a pair of garment hangers having outwardly and downwardly extending shoulder members and being in overlying staggered relation when jointly under the load of a triple folded garment consisting of a substantially fiat plate, a pair of upper hook members on said plate extending outwardly and upwardly from one face thereof, each of said upper hook members adapted to detachably engage repectively each of the two shoulder members of one of said garment hangers to position said hanger on one side of said plate, and a pair of lower hook members on said plate below said upper hook members extending outwardly and downwardly from the opposite face thereof, each of said lower hook members adapted to detachably engage respectively the two shoulder members of the other said garment hanger to thereby position said second garment hanger on the opposite side of said plate and in overlying downwardly staggered relation to the first hanger.

7. A separator for positioning and maintaining a pair of garment hangers having outwardly and downwardly extending shoulder members and being in overlying staggered relation when jointly under the load of a triple folded garment consisting of a substantially flat plate having 7 upper and lower edges, a pair of upper hanger engaging means on said upper edge extending outwardly and upwardly from one face of said plate, each of said upper hanger engaging means adapted to detachably engage respectively the two shoulder members of one of said garment hangers to position said hanger on one side of said plate, the said plate having a portion extending above said upper hanger engaging means to be contiguous with a portion of the said hanger to prevent rotation thereof with respect to said plate and a pair of lower hanger engaging means extending outwardly and downwardly from the opposite face of said plate adapted to detachably engage respectively each of the two shoulder members of the other said garment hanger to thereby position said second garment hanger on the opposite side of said plate and in overlying downwardly staggered relation to the first hanger.

8. A supporting device for supporting a garment comprising: a first garment hanger; a second garment hanger overlying said first garment hanger and downwardly spaced therefrom in staggered relation, each of the said two gar ment hangers having a hook member, a pair of outwardly and downwardly extending shoulder members and a horizontal garment supporting member; a separator; upper hanger engaging means on said separator detaehably engaging respectively the shoulder members of said first hanger and positioning said hanger on one side of said separator; lower hanger engaging means on said separator below said upper hanger engaging means, detachably engaging respectively the shoulder members of said second hanger and positioning said hanger on the opposite side of said separator and below said first hanger, the said upper hanger engaging means having a portion extending under the shoulder members of said first hanger and forming a barrier to movement of said first hanger downwardly and the said lower hanger engaging means having a portion extending over the shoulder members of said second hanger and forming a barrier to movement of said second hanger upwardly when the said two hangers are jointly under the load of a triple folded garment.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,955,205 Sevigny Apr. 17, 1934 2,113,394 Biri et al. Apr. 5, 1938 2,370,436 Zimmerman Feb. 27, 1945 2,498,400 DuLude Feb. 21, 1950 2,750,086 Antal June 12, 1956 2,822,967 Spitz Feb. 11, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 723,659 Great Britain Feb. 9, 1955 

